Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to Minister of State a good evening and I welcome H.E. Larysa Gerasko, the Ukrainian ambassador.

I very much welcome the opportunity before I head back to a committee meeting to make some brief comments to mark this grim and grisly second anniversary. I remember well - I think we all do - when Russian armour started to roll into Ukraine on 24 February 2022. It is amazing that two years have passed and that the situation continues, which is an absolute travesty and a crime in itself.

I want to reflect on Ireland's response. In general terms, this has been very good, particularly from a political point of view. It is ten out of ten in the context of absolute support for Ukraine, and rightly so. Ukraine is a now candidate country for EU accession, which is very positive. Ireland's response is also very positive from a diplomatic perspective. It is hugely positive from a humanitarian point of view, with 100,000 Ukrainians currently residing in Ireland having sought refuge here. It is also positive from an economic perspective. We rowed in behind every sanction. In fact, we have been pushing the EU to do even more. As a result of the death of Alexei Navalny, we should be looking for the imposition of more sanctions in order to absolutely hammer home the message that the Kremlin in Russia cannot act with impunity in the context of what it is doing to its own people.

There is room for improvement. We have given some financial support, with €122 million pledged so far, which is no small beans for sure. However, we have the opportunity to give more. I welcome the fact that our Defence Forces personnel have been training Ukrainian armed forces directly in mine clearance, combat casualty care and drill instruction. That is very positive. I welcome the bilateral arrangement whereby Ireland provides body armour and ration packs directly to the Ukrainian armed forces. Our response has been good, but we can do more though. The question that arises is where we go from here. What should we be doing? As I said, more than €100 million has been committed by the Government through the European Peace Facility, but this is exclusively for non-lethal technology. That makes sense. I would prefer if we did more, but I totally understand the consensus in the House.

What I am exploring, which I mentioned to the Tánaiste previously, is that a big issue in Ukraine is air defence technology. Many cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones are being used on Kyiv. People there have little or no means to protect themselves. I spent a week in Kyiv before Christmas, so I know what an air defence shelter looks like. The difficulty is that we could do more from the perspective of providing non-lethal equipment. If we provide the radars and air interception technology, all they are doing is shooting down inanimate objects that are flying through the air. You cannot have a lethal effect on something that is not alive in the first place. Caveats could be put in place to the effect that any technology we provide from an air defence point of view may only be used around Kyiv. Ireland has an obligation from the point of view of protecting civilians. That is something we can explore. I would certainly have an open mind in that regard.

In the context of Russian financial assets - I was glad to hear the Tánaiste comment on this - €1.8 billion of Russian assets held in the International Financial Services Centre, IFSC, have been frozen. Rather than just freezing these assets, we should seize them and put them to good use. This money is needed to support both the war effort in Ukraine and the post-war reconstruction. I recognise that there are legal and monetary complications to what I am suggesting, but we could fast-track dealing with those and move matters along. The Russian Federation and the Kremlin has seized Irish assets, namely, aircraft. It is high time we reciprocated.

We should be preparing our Defence Forces. Incredibly, there has been a further diminution of our military capability, even in the past two years. We still have naval vessels that cannot put to sea and aircraft that cannot take to the skies. Irish troops will be withdrawn from Syria in the next two months because we cannot maintain the 130 troops needed out there. We are at our lowest ebb for more than 50 years. That sends out all the wrong signals. Two very simple things we could use are sonar technology and radar technology. Ireland is the only EU country that lacks both of these. That says a lot about how we value our sovereignty and territorial integrity.

I agree that Putin will not stop voluntarily; he must be stopped. At the outset of the war, it was stated that we should support Ukraine for as long as we could. This then became that we should support Ukraine for as long as it takes. The new phrase should be that we should support Ukraine until victory. Ireland has a choice. We can fight Russia indirectly in the Donbas or we are going to have to fight it here in Dublin. That is a choice we should not have to make. I say we should support Ukraine absolutely until victory.

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